This was recorded in 1984 — though I didn't buy it until at least five years later — and shows how long it is since Sonic Youth laid down their template. Already they have that mix of avant noise and straight-ahead rocking, Kim's proto-riot grrrl (yeah! hark at me, I've got the NME lingo!) lyrics and attitude, and the slightly oddly-tuned guitars. Even the photos in the CD booklet could almost be from last year, except that Lee has more grey round his temples now, Kim has more laughter lines, and the drummer is different — but Thurston looks almost identical (same haircut, same clothes).
The Wikipedia entry for the album says more interesting things than I could, so I'll just note that my copy is the Blast First CD edition (BFFP1) with twelve tracks, including Flower and Halloween.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
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